Words shared can cause joy and pain, delight and laughter, misery and despair and ...

I wrote once to Reader's Digest. Asking to be published, I submitted my brief stories—100 words exactly crafted to tell how I am. "You are chosen", they said, "to take the next step." Post words on a wall. Use language to spread colors into life. See what your neighbors, tall and small, says. Wear your blood red beating heart on your sleeve and so I flirted with life on a big stage. Words came. Someone else chosen and I alone with my thoughts.

Winking

Only a little intimidated, I winked at her across the campground. I was, after all, bicycling 3000 US miles. She was riding only the first week. I wasn't really flirting. I was in a new realm, a little off balance. It changes you, the challenge of riding 70 miles a day, waking up in new places every morning, feeling sunlight on your face and the wind sometimes blowing straight in to your face.

It's hard to get your bearings when you are always moving towards the horizon. And sometimes you do that magically unpredictable thing that turns out amazing.

Rich Colorful Vision

With a 28 year-old photographer's eye, I scanned magazines in the ophthalmologist's waiting room. Wasn't good news when he finally saw me. "You need to consider what your life will be like if you are blind." A stark white coat, impressive degrees on the wall, "it is genetic, so there is nothing you can do," he darkened my life.

I went to massage school, a profession you can do blind, if you have to. There I found acupressure, craniosacral therapy, nutrition, matrix energetics, reiki and the keys to the kingdom of better eyesight at 40 than 28.

Peruvian Gatekeepers

As if to say, "why are you here?', Peruvian ibises squawk. The color of Andean snow, they fly as I respond, "the universe conspired, bringing me to this Star Gate near Lake Titicaca. I am here, feeling a deep peace, a rightness with the world."

After a mile pilgrimage across farmland, my guide, Bruno motioned to channels carve, an outline in granite. So old, no knows by whom but legend goes: in flight from Spanish conquistadors, an Incan priest took precious artwork, walked through stone and up to the Pleiades', opening a channel from the stars to me.

12 Million Plus Great Horned Owl

Her beautiful silk kimono spreads the color of sunset. I remember. But even a Japanese bride wouldn't draw this Tokyo crowd. What has summoned photographers with 300 mm lenses stretched out like tree trunks. Following their eyes up a massive tree stands against the densely populated skyline. A great horned owl peaks out.

Waiting for him to fly, one photographer peers through an identical camera body to my Canon. I beg in Japanese, "just for a moment, lend me your lens." Capturing a wise owl so adaptable he can live alongside 12 million people.

Montana Proud Cross-USA Bicyclist

At 55, I bicycled 84 miles into Forsyth on July 4th. "Freedom", said a grain farmer asked about life in Montana. "We know everyone", said three small town women power walking.

A six year old, I realized "Gringo" was not good in Bogota. I barely knew Vietnam's location, as a teenager when someone spit on me in Europe. At 22, I stayed inside my Tokyo apartment on Hiroshima day.

Bicycling Seattle to DC, seeing beauty, talking to people, feeling sunlight on my face, hearing birds sing, I am a proud American for the first time, ever.

Loved Red Sea diving. It's the week before I work in Tel Aviv, helping people heal. The clinic door opens. Someone reports, "A bombing near home in NYC." It is September 11th, 2001.

Walnut Trees

Planted a walnut tree today in back of my new house with her and the kids—an act of faith in nuts which will not come for five years. Uncertainty reigns. Will I know the nutty crunch, seeds grown with tough shells and soft spongy coats worn to protect yet falling away in the fertile earth, growing into seedlings, then in the blink of an eye or 30 years a 75 foot tree continues reaching for sunlight, growing to the outer limits of what is possible with abundant resources, feeling gratitude for love, and the willingness of trust.

1982 graduates Brigham Young University, 1988 authors a chapter in Guide to Gracious Lesbian Living signing only her first name. 2004 denied a marriage license. 2018 marries the love of her life. - Kimberly Burnham

An aphorisms is a terse saying embodying a general truth or astute observation.

Poet-In-Residence Position​I am looking for guest blog opportunities and a position as poet-in-residence. My current project is writing dictionary poems using words in different languages for the English word "peace." You can read some of my poems on Poemhunter .As poet-in-residence I would write poems on different words in different languages and broadcast them throughout the social media blogosphere. Each poem would link back to your site where the word or language appeared.I would expect some sort of stipend and a six month to one year placement. Please contact me for details if your organization is interested in having a poet-in-residence to help get your message out. Nervewhisperer@gmial.com

Daily reminders are set up for the peace word of the day. [Put it on your phone}​Medical research indicates that learning a new language after age 50 or figuring out puzzles or singing, playing music and reading rhythmical poetry can help decrease the chances of Alzheimer's and dementia as well as improve brain plasticity and function.

This calendar is not a new language but is the language of peace or the words for peace in hundreds of different languages. It will take five years to learn or meditate on the 2000 different words for peace found here.

To learn the word for peace (one word a day) in every known language is perhaps a 20-year project but if you start with today's word it will bring you more inner peace, spread community peace and increase the sense of calm and tranquility throughout the world. Your brain health and pattern recognition skills will also benefit.

These exercises and poems are meant to decrease stress, increase conscious awareness and increase your ability to see the opportunities to grow and connect in the world around you.